During the early years of the Civil Rights Movement, Dr. King used his moral authority as a Baptist minister to convince conservative and religious Americans that civil rights for all Americans was the right and moral thing to do. Television images of George Wallace, Bull Connor, the KKK, firehoses being used on innocent people, etc., helped convince even the non-religious that it was the right thing to do. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed with 80% of republican votes (versus 60% of democrat votes).

I was a student at the university in 1967. By then, the progressives and communists from the west coast, calling themselves the "Black Panthers" had hijacked the movement by convincing the black population that King was wrong. That non-violence was a failed strategy. That the white man was the enemy. That LBJ's war against the communist armies in southeast asia was wrong. That massive government programs aimed at the black community were the only solution to eliminate poverty and assure equal rights. That a militant "black power movement" was needed to achieve their objective.

Martin Luther King was assassinated in 1968 and the field was cleared for the one faction to claim ownership of the movement.

It was then that republicans and Christian conservatives began turning away from the Civil Rights movement. They supported the war against communism, which is the antithesis of freedom. They believed in self-reliance, not massive government social programs. They didn't believe in race-based affirmative action, they believed in King's dream of being judged, "not by the color of your skin but by the content of your character."

Today, conservatives still honor Dr. Martin Luther King for his dream and his appeal to a moral citizenry to achieve that dream. But their experience with the likes of Huey Newton, Bobby Seale, Angela Davis et al has unfortunately recast the movement as a power play by the Left to eliminate capitalism and replace it with the welfare state.